2. The Grass Crown Read online

  Whether the passionately unhappy curse of Servilia had any influence with Fate and Fortune or not, Livia Drusa grew to believe it had. For she had come to realize that she was dying, and could find no other reason for it. Four children had she brought into the world without a single complication; why should a fifth change that pattern? Everyone knew they got easier to bear. When the stout little elderly lady appeared in the doorway of her room, Livia Drusa simply stared, wondering who was wasting her ebbing energy on a stranger. The stranger walked inside, her hands outstretched. "I'm your mother, Livia Drusa," the stranger said, sat down on the edge of the bed, and took her girl into her arms. They both wept, as much for the unexpectedness of this reunion as for the lost years, then Cornelia Scipionis made her daughter comfortable, and sat on a chair drawn up close. The already clouding eyes drank in that plain Scipionic face, the matronly garb, the unadorned hair, wondering. "I thought you'd be very beautiful, Mama," she said. "A typical eater of men, you mean." "Father even my brother " Cornelia Scipionis patted the hand she held, smiling. "Oh, they're Livii Drusi what more can one say on that subject? I love life, girl! I always, always did. I like to laugh, I don't take the world seriously enough. My friends numbered as many men as women. Just friends! But in Rome a woman cannot have men friends without half the world at least assuming she has more on her mind than intellectual conversation. Including, as it turned out, your father. My husband. Yet I felt myself entitled to see my friends men as well as women whenever I wanted. But I certainly didn't appreciate the gossip, nor the way your father always believed what the gossipers said ahead of his wife. He never once took my side!" "So you never did have lovers!" Livia Drusa said. "Not in the days when I lived with your father, no. I was more maligned than maligning. Even so, I came to realize that if I stayed with your father, I would die. So after Mamercus was born I allowed your father to think that he was the child of old Mamercus Aemilius Lepidus, who was one of my dearest friends. But no more my lover than any other of my men friends. When old Mamercus asked to adopt my baby, your father agreed at once provided I would go too. But he never divorced me, isn't that odd? Old Mamercus was a widower, and was very glad to welcome the mother of his new adopted son. I went to a much happier house, Livia Drusa, and lived with old Mamercus as his wife until he died." Livia Drusa managed to lift herself off her pillows. "But I thought you had many love affairs!" she said. "Oh, I did, dear girl. After old Mamercus died. For a while, dozens of them. But love affairs pall, you know. They're only a way of exploring human nature if a strong attachment is lacking, which it mostly is. One looks for something, always hoping to find it. But then one day a realization dawns that love affairs are more trouble than they're worth, that the elusive something cannot be found in this way. It's some years now since I've had a lover, actually. I'm happier simply living with my son Mamercus and enjoying my friends. Or I was until Mamercus married." She pulled a face. "I don't like my daughter-in-law." "Mama, I'm dying! I'll never know you now!" "Better the little we have than nothing, Livia Drusa. It isn't all your brother's fault," said Cornelia Scipionis, facing the truth without flinching. "Once I left your father, I made no attempt to try to see you or your brother Marcus. I could have. I didn't." She squared her shoulders, adopted a cheerful mien. "Anyway, who says you're dying? It's almost two months since you had your baby. Too long for him to make you die." "It isn't his fault I'm dying," said Livia Drusa. "I've been cursed. I have the Evil Eye." Cornelia Scipionis stared, astonished. "The Evil Eye? Oh, Livia Drusa, what rubbish! It doesn't exist." "Yes, it does." "Child, it does not! And who is there to hate you enough for that, anyway? Your ex-husband?" "No, he doesn't even think about me." "Who, then?" But Livia Drusa shivered, wouldn't answer. "Tell me!" her mother commanded, sounding every inch a Scipio. "Servilia." It came out as a whisper. "Servilia?" Brows knitted, Cornelia Scipionis worked the name out. "You mean a daughter by your first husband?" "Yes." "I see." She patted Livia Drusa's hand. "I won't insult you by telling you this is all your imagination, my dear, but you must overcome your feelings. Don't give the girl the satisfaction." A shadow fell across her; Cornelia Scipionis turned around to see a tall, red-haired man in the doorway, and smiled at him. "You must be Marcus Porcius," she said, getting up. "I'm your mother-in-law, and I've just had a wonderful reunion with Livia Drusa. Look after her now. I must find her brother.'' Out to the colonnade she went, eyes darting about fiercely until she saw her older son sitting by the fountain. "Marcus Livius!" she said sharply when she reached him. "Did you know that your sister believes herself ill-wished?" Drusus looked shocked. "She doesn't!" "Oh yes she does! By a daughter called Servilia." His lips thinned. "I see." "Now you're not surprised, my son." "Anything but. That child is a menace. Having her in my house is like playing host to the Sphinx a monster capable of organized thought.'' "Is it possible Livia Drusa is dying because she does believe herself cursed?'' Drusus shook his head positively. "Mama," he said, the word slipping out without his noticing it, "Livia Drusa is dying from an injury sustained during the birth of her last child. The doctors say it, and I believe them. Instead of healing, the injury has broken down. Haven't you noticed the smell in her room?'' "Of course. But I still think she believes she's cursed." "I'll get the girl," said Drusus, getting up. "I confess I'd like to see her," said Cornelia Scipionis, and settled back to wait by filling her mind with that slipped "Mama." Small. Very dark. Mysteriously pretty. Enigmatic. Yet so filled with fire and power that she reminded her grandmother of a house built upon a stoppered-up fumarole. One day the shutters would burst open, the roof would fly off, and there she would stand revealed for all the world to see. A seething mass of poisons and scorching gales. What on earth could have made her so unhappy? "Servilia, this is your grandmother, Cornelia Scipionis," said Drusus, not leaving go of his niece's shoulder. Servilia sniffed, said nothing. "I've just been to visit your mother," said Cornelia Scipionis gently. "Did you know that she believes you've cursed her?" "Does she? Good," said Servilia. "I did curse her." "Oh, well, thank you," said the grandmother, and waved her away without any expression on her face. "Back to the nursery!" When he returned, Drusus was grinning widely. "That was brilliant!" he said, sitting down. "You squashed her flat." "No one will ever squash Servilia flat," said Cornelia Scipionis, then added thoughtfully, "Unless it's a man." "Her father has done it already." "Oh, I see. ... I did hear that he refuses to acknowledge any of his children." "That is correct. The others were too young to be affected. But Servilia was heartbroken at the time or I think she was. It's hard to tell, Mama. She's as sly as she is dangerous." "Poor little thing." "Hah!" said Drusus. Cratippus came at that moment, ushering Mamercus Aemilius Lepidus Livianus. Very like Drusus to look at, he yet lacked the power everyone sensed in Drusus. Twenty-seven to Drusus's thirty-seven, no brilliant career as a young advocate in the courts had been forthcoming, no brilliant political future was predicted for him, as it always had been for Drusus. Even so, he had a certain phlegmatic strength his older brother lacked, and the things poor Drusus had had to learn unaided after the battle of Arausio had been offered to Mamercus from birth, thanks to the presence of his mother, a true Cornelian of the Scipionic branch broad-minded, educated, intellectually curious. Cornelia Scipionis shifted up on her seat to make room for Mamercus, who hung back a little shyly when Drusus made no move to welcome him, just gazed at him searchingly. "Be of good cheer, Marcus Livius," their mother said. "You are full brothers. And you must become good friends." "I never thought we weren't full brothers," said Mamercus. "I did," said Drusus grimly. "What is the truth of it, Mama? What you've said to me today, or what you told my father?" "What I've said today. What I told your father enabled me to escape. I make no excuses for my conduct I was probably all you thought me and more, Marcus Livius, even if for different reasons." She shrugged. "I don't have the temperament to repine, I live in the present and the future, never the past." Drusus held out his right hand to his brother, and smiled. "Welcome to my house, Mamercus Aemilius," he said. Mamercus took
the hand, then moved forward and kissed his brother on the lips. "Mamercus," he said shakily. "Just Mamercus. I'm the only Roman with that name, so call me Mamercus." "Our sister is dying," said Drusus, not releasing Mamercus's hand when he sat down, his brother next to him. "Oh .. . I'm sorry. I didn't know." “Didn't Claudia tell you?" asked their mother, scowling. "I gave her a detailed message for you." "No, she just said you'd rushed off with Marcus Livius." Cornelia Scipionis made up her mind; another escape was necessary. "Marcus Livius," she said, looking at him with tears in her eyes, “I have given all of myself to your brother for the last twenty-seven years.'' She winked the tears away. “My daughter I will never get to know. But you and Marcus Porcius are going to be left with six children to care for and no woman in the house unless you plan to marry again?'' Drusus shook his head emphatically. "No, Mama, I don't." "Then if you wish it I will come here to live, and look after the children." "I wish it," said Drusus, and turned to his brother with a new smile. "It is good to know I have more family."

  On Young Cato's two-month anniversary, Livia Drusa died. In some ways it was a happy death, as she had known its imminence, and striven to do everything in her power to make her passing easier for those she left behind. The presence of her mother she found an enormous comfort, knowing her children would be cared for with love and family feeling. Taking strength from Cornelia Scipionis (who excluded Servilia from all sight of Livia Drusa), she came to terms with her dying and thought no more of curses, of Evil Eyes. More important by far was the fate of those destined to live. There were many words of love and consolation for Cato Salonianus, many instructions and desires, and his was the face her dimming eyes rested upon at the last, his was the hand she clung to, his the love she felt wash her away into oblivion. For her brother Drusus there were words of love and encouragement too, and words of consolation. The only child she asked to see was Young Caepio. "Take care of your little brother Cato," she mumbled, and kissed him with lips fiery from fever. "Take care of my children," she said to her mother. And to Cato Salonianus she said, "I never realized Penelope died before Odysseus." They were her last words.

  III (93 B.C.)

  Though his experience in the law courts was nonexistent and his knowledge of Roman law minimal, Sulla enjoyed being the praetor urbanus. For one thing, he had common sense; for another, he surrounded himself with good assistants whom he was never afraid to ask on those occasions when he needed advice; and, by no means least, he had the right kind of mind for the job. What he chiefly enjoyed was what he privately thought of as his autonomy no more being lumped with Gaius Marius! Finally he was beginning to be known for himself, as a distinct and separate entity. His tiny retinue of clients increased, and his habit of taking his son with him everywhere was deemed charming; his son, vowed Sulla, would have every conceivable advantage, including a youthful career in the law courts and the right commanders in the army. The lad not only looked like a Caesar, but had some of the Julian brand of attractiveness as well, so that he made friends easily, and those he made, he tended to keep, thanks to a turn of mind as sympathetic as it was fair. Chief among his friends was a lad some five months older than Sulla's son, a scrawny boy with an enormous cranium rather than head, named Marcus Tullius Cicero. Oddly enough, he came from Gaius Marius's home town of Arpinum; his grandfather had been the brother-in-law of Gaius Marius's brother, Marcus, both being married to Gratidia sisters. All of this Sulla was not put to discover, for when Young Sulla brought Cicero home, Sulla found himself buried beneath a huge landslide of information; Cicero was a talker. There was, for instance, no need to ask what the boy from Arpinum was doing in Rome Sulla was quickly told. "My father is a good friend of Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, the Princeps Senatus," said young Cicero importantly, "and also a good friend of Quintus Mucius Scaevola the Augur. And he is the client of Lucius Licinius Crassus Orator! So when Father realized I was just too gifted and intelligent to remain in Arpinum, he moved us to Rome. That was last year. We have a nice house on the Carinae, next door to the temple of Tellus Publius Rutilius Rufus lives on the other side of the temple. I am studying with both Quintus Mucius Augur and Lucius Crassus Orator, though more with Lucius Crassus Orator, because Quintus Mucius Augur is so old. We've been coming to Rome for years, of course I started my Forum studies when I was only eight. We're not country bumpkins, Lucius Cornelius! Much better stock than Gaius Marius!" Hugely amused, Sulla sat and let the thirteen-year-old rattle on, privately wondering when the inevitable was going to happen; when that great melon of a head would snap itself off its too-slender stem, go crashing to the ground and roll away, still talking. It nodded so, it heaved itself up and down and sideways, it burdened its owner in ways obviously uncomfortable, precarious. "Do you know," Cicero asked artlessly, "that I already have an audience when I give my exercises in rhetoric? There's no argument my preceptors can set me that I can't win!" "I gather, then, that you're planning a career as an advocate?" Sulla asked, sneaking a few words in edgeways. "Oh, certainly! But not like the great Aculeo my blood is good enough to seek the consulship! Well, the Senate first, naturally. I shall have a great public career. Everyone says so!" Cicero's head flopped forward. "In my experience, Lucius Cornelius, a legal exposure to the electorate is much more effective than that tired old grandmother, the army." Gazing at him with a fascinated eye, Sulla said gently, "I managed to get where I am on my tired old granny's back, Marcus Tullius. I never had a legal career, yet here I am, urban praetor." Cicero brushed this aside. "Yes, but you didn't have my advantages, Lucius Cornelius. I shall be praetor in my fortieth year, as is correct and proper.'' Sulla gave up. "I'm positive you will, Marcus Tullius." "Yes, tata," said Young Sulla later, when he was alone with his father, and therefore at liberty to revert to the childhood diminutive of tata, "I know he's a bit of a terrible wart, but I do rather like him anyway. Don't you?" "I think young Cicero is frightful, my son, but I agree that he's likable. Is he really as good as people say?" "Hear him, and judge for yourself, tata." Sulla shook his head emphatically. "No, thank you! I wouldn't give him the satisfaction, presumptuous little Arpinate mushroom!" "Scaurus Princeps Senatus is terrifically impressed with him," said Young Sulla, leaning against his father with an ease and familiarity that poor young Cicero would never know; poor young Cicero was already discovering that his father was too much the country squire to impress Roman nobles, and was generally dismissed as some sort of relative of Gaius Marius's. Anathema! The result was that young Cicero was rapidly withdrawing from his father, too aware that to be labeled with Gaius Marius was a disadvantage he didn't need in his pursuit of high office. "Scaurus Princeps Senatus," said Sulla to his son with some satisfaction, "has too much on his plate at the moment to worry about young Marcus Tullius Cicero." It was a fair comment. As Leader of the House, Marcus Aemilius Scaurus normally attended to foreign embassages and those aspects of foreign relations not considered likely to lead to a war. Few senators honestly considered any foreign nation not a province of Rome's important enough to occupy their time, so the Leader of the House was always scratching to find members for any committee which didn't carry the perquisite of a trip abroad at State expense, and they were scant. Thus it was that the senatorial answer to the aggrieved Socrates, younger son of the deceased King of Bithynia, took ten months to formulate before the courier left for Nicomedia. It was not an answer likely to please Socrates, as it confirmed the third King Nicomedes in his tenure of the throne, and dismissed the claim of Socrates emphatically. Then before that matter was resolved, Scaurus Princeps Senatus inherited yet another squabble concerning a foreign throne. Queen Laodice and King Ariobarzanes of Cappadocia arrived in Rome, refugees from King Tigranes of Armenia and his father-in-law, King Mithridates of Pontus. Fed up with being ruled by a son of Mithridates and the grandson of his Pontic puppet, Gordius, the Cappadocians had been trying ever since Gaius Marius departed from Mazaca to find a truly Cappadocian king. Their Syrian choice had died, rumored by poison at the hand of Gordius, so the Cappadocians dug de
eply into their genealogical records and came up with a Cappadocian baron who definitely had royal blood in his veins, one Ariobarzanes. His mother inevitably named Laodice was a cousin of the last King Ariarathes who could honestly be called Cappadocian. Off the throne came the boy-king Ariarathes Eusebes and his grandfather Gordius, who fled at once to Pontus. But, aware that thanks to Gaius Marius Rome was looking his way, Mithridates did not act directly; he employed Tigranes of Armenia as his agent. Thus it was Tigranes who invaded Cappadocia, Tigranes who selected the new Cappadocian king. Not a son of Mithridates of Pontus this time. Pontus and Armenia in conference had agreed that no child could sit comfortably on that throne. The new King of Cappadocia was Gordius himself. But Laodice and Ariobarzanes got away, and duly appeared in Rome in the early spring of the year Sulla was urban praetor. Their presence was a great difficulty for Scaurus, who had been heard (and read, in letters) often enough to say that the fate of Cappadocia must be left in the hands of its people. His advocacy of King Mithridates of Pontus was now an embarrassment, though the accusation of Laodice and Ariobarzanes that Mithridates was behind the invasion of Tigranes of Armenia could not be proven. "You'll have to go and see for yourself," said Sulla to Scaurus as they left the poorly attended meeting of the Senate that had debated the matter of Cappadocia. "Wretched nuisance!" Scaurus grumbled. "I can't afford to leave Rome at the moment." "Then you'll have to appoint someone else," said Sulla. But Scaurus drew his meager frame upward, chin especially, and assumed the burden. "No, Lucius Cornelius, I'll go." And go he did, a whirlwind visit not to Cappadocia but to see King Mithridates at his court in Amaseia. Wined and dined, feted and applauded, Marcus Aemilius Scaurus Princeps Senatus had a wonderful time in Pontus. As the King's guest, he went hunting lion and bear; as the King's guest, he went fishing on the Euxine for fighting tunny and dolphin; as the King's guest, he went exploring some of the more famous beauty spots waterfalls, ravines, towering peaks; as the King's guest, he feasted on cherries, the most delicious fruit he had ever tasted. Assured that Pontus harbored no desire to rule Cappadocia, the conduct of Tigranes was deplored and deprecated. And having found the Pontic court gracefully Hellenized and entirely Greek-speaking, Marcus Aemilius Scaurus Princeps Senatus packed up and went home in one of the King's ships. "He fell for it," said Mithridates to his cousin Archelaus, smiling broadly. “I think in great measure due to your letters to him during the past two years," said Archelaus. "Keep writing to him, Great One! It's a splendid investment." "So was the bag of gold I gave him." "Very true!"